Hickory House (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Hickory House is a British television programme aimed at pre-school children. It was produced by Granada Television
from 1973 to 1977 and broadcast on weekday lunchtimes.
Each programme was usually hosted by a pair of presenters, most often including Alan Rothwell. The setting was normal house, but in Hickory House household objects were brought to life through puppetry. The puppet characters included Humphrey Cushion (a grey cushion with a fondness for bananas), Dusty Mop (a mop with a long red nose) and the Handle Family. The puppets were created by Barry Smith's Theatre of Puppets.
All 129 episodes survive in Granada's archive, although none have yet been released on DVD
.
The animated opening title sequence of Hickory House began with Granada Television's "G" logo transforming into a house. This innovation was used again in 1978 with the game show 3-2-1
, when Yorkshire Television's "Y" logo was worked into an animated title sequence. Curiously, this later programme also featured a character named "Dusty" based on a household item (in this case, a dustbin).
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
from 1973 to 1977 and broadcast on weekday lunchtimes.
Each programme was usually hosted by a pair of presenters, most often including Alan Rothwell. The setting was normal house, but in Hickory House household objects were brought to life through puppetry. The puppet characters included Humphrey Cushion (a grey cushion with a fondness for bananas), Dusty Mop (a mop with a long red nose) and the Handle Family. The puppets were created by Barry Smith's Theatre of Puppets.
All 129 episodes survive in Granada's archive, although none have yet been released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
The animated opening title sequence of Hickory House began with Granada Television's "G" logo transforming into a house. This innovation was used again in 1978 with the game show 3-2-1
3-2-1
3–2–1 was a popular British game show that was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It ran for ten years, between 29 July 1978 and 24 December 1988. Throughout its run, the show was hosted by former Butlins Redcoat Ted Rogers. It was based on a Spanish gameshow called Un, dos, tres.....
, when Yorkshire Television's "Y" logo was worked into an animated title sequence. Curiously, this later programme also featured a character named "Dusty" based on a household item (in this case, a dustbin).